


Self-Consistency

by DynamicKea



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Gen, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 23:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13691811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DynamicKea/pseuds/DynamicKea
Summary: Specimen Five and Lalnable were separated when they went through the broken portal.Five found herself in the nether.Another found Five.





	Self-Consistency

Haggard. Exigency. Left. Languish. Obviate.

_Coughing, smoke in lungs. Breathe. Try to stand -- can't. Can't get up. Legs buckle. Focus, need to find him._

‘Boss?’ _Coughing, coughing. Sounds scream against ears. That's wrong. They aren't the right screams. It's not right. Legs steady._

 _Grit in eyes. Grit in flux. All of it hot, heated, bleeding._ ‘B-boss? ...Lalnable?’ _Nothing but red. Stone, blood, her, him, everything the same shade._

Farmer. Idiot. Victory. Escaped.

 _The portal, where was the portal?_ ‘Boss! Argh, where are... where are you!!’ _Grit crushed underfoot. Steam scalds. Humming. Pig-like men flee._

Yern. Obliterate. Unrelenting.

_Thousands of canyons and towering cliffs. One shard of familiar metal. Iridescent, shimmering. An oasis in the endless red heat._

_But it's just a shard. Barely bigger than a hand. Useless._ ‘Boss, if you're out there, I found the portal! Kinda.’ _Too heavy to carry in the red canyons. Over the lava. Around the black skeletons. Had to leave it._

Hysteria. Asunder. Vanquish. Eclectic.

_Were there footsteps? No. No. Nothing. There's never anything. Nothing but the endless fire. The endless heat. Not even a challenge -- the pigs were too easy to kill. Ugh, where the hell were they!_

So. Overwhelm. Machinations. Exhort. Taint. Hound. Indeed. Now. Gain.

 _What was that? Another pig, no doubt._ ‘Alright! I know you're there. Why don't you come out and _play._ ’

Overhead. Flux.

_Again, pigs were easy. Now what?_

Many. Invade. Now. EAT.

* * *

 

The _thing_ appeared out of nothing. One moment, Five was looking up at the lava-baked stones and wondering how to climb yet another cliff, the next she was slammed onto her back by a sudden blur of purple. She lashed out automatically, sending it crashing into the stones above her. A sound like tearing metal _hissed_. She caught a glimpse -- just a tiny glimpse -- of shadow and form and purple, and then it _moved_.

Five scampered backwards, turning to keep the _thing_ in her sights. It swarmed like a spider. It's limbs were snakes, oozing and dropping itself down the cliff face. Towards her.

‘Oh no you _don--_ ’ Five ducked. She pressed herself flat against the baked stones. The _thing_ passed over her in an instant. She heard the faint ruffle of fabric against fabric whip by. Then a clatter as stones rolled as it landed, and Five twisted.

Five was familiar with monsters. Hell, she counted as one. But the _thing_ sure took the title and went on a date with it.

It was humanoid, as far as Five could tell. Her eyes were drawn immediately to its face. Past the rumpled black clothes, past the bright purple hands. Its face looked like someone had sliced it open with a rusty sword. That was the mouth, wasn't it? Yes, definitely the mouth, since the edges of the gaping pit were rising at the corners. Five almost expected to see teeth. Instead it was an empty hollow too wide for a smile.

It stood. Ripples of movement swept across its... skin? Clothes? One of the two. The black fabric looked fused to its skin, and the rippling moved seamlessly through its whole form.

Speaking of seams. Five could have sworn there was a seam in its head, right along the side. There were purple threads. It was made of fabric.

The thing grinned at her. Gaped at her. Ok, fabric monster. Five could deal with this. Its form started rippling again, and Five took a step towards it.

‘Come on, then!’ Five grinned right back, slipping her pulse rifle from her shoulder. ‘Let's see what _you_ can do!’

The thing’s head twitched to one side. Then back. It raised its han--oooohhhh those were not hands. Purple threads, ebbing and twisting just like flux. In fact, the ripples over its form reminded her a lot of flux. The threads twisted again, and then they--

Five fired, splitting the sudden stream of flux heading her way into two. The flux splashed like water against the cliff behind her. She could hear it hiss. The thing had moved, had vanished while she had fired, and Five spun in place. For good measure, she let loose a few rounds into one steaming heap of flux.

Five giggled. ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are~!’ she sang, reloading.

The pile of flux she had not blown into oblivion _twitched._ Five fired immediately, but the pile oozed to one side, diving away from her shots.

‘Aw, that's pretty cool,’ Five said, before adjusting her aim. The flux was decimated, dripping like blood down the cliff. Five took a few steps further away from the rocks below, just in case.

And then the first pile started shifting.

Five rolled her eyes. ‘Y’know, being unkillable is cool ‘n all, but it’ll get _super_ boring, trust me.’ She fired until the flux stopped moving. ‘I mean, what do you think I’ll do? Leave, or stand here and shoot you? 'Cause I can do that, so you're not going to do anything. And you can't even telepor--’

Something cold wrapped around Five’s wrist.

She yelped and flailed instinctively, swinging towards whatever was beside her with her rifle. Five heard something slither against the ground, but when she looked down, nothing was there. Nothing was around her wrist either.

Nothing but whispers.

Five spun around, eyes darting between rock and stone and cliff. The lava was hissing below. She _definitely_ heard someone talking, down at the very edge of her hearing.

‘Where are you!’ Five shouted. The flux was dripping and oozing away between the stones. The _thing_ was still nowhere to be seen.

Another patch of cold coiled around her throat.

‘Get off!’ Five snatched at her throat, expecting to feel a rope or a hand there. But no, nothing. Nothing was there. Nothing but the cold dripping into her bones. Her eyes were wide, her fingers fumbling, and when another coil of _cold_ latched to Five’s shoulder she flinched.

Her fingers were numb. Why were they numb? She couldn't keep a grip on her rifle, and Five nearly screamed as it clattered against the stones. Five pawed at it, her hand refusing to hold it.

Something was wrong with this world. That was it. The air in Five’s lungs was uncomfortably warm, scratching. Five growled and grabbed the gun with her free hand, the hand that _didn't_ have cold creeping around her. The cold was spreading down towards it, but she gritted her teeth.

‘You little--’

The cold around Five’s neck tightened. Her words were cut short in a frantic wheeze. Again she reached for the cold, but there wasn't anything there. Nothing. Nothing was there to stop Five breathing, but she couldn't draw a breath around the cold.

Spots flared in Five’s eyes. She fell to her knees, gun forgotten, and clawed desperately at her neck. The cold was spreading. Across her face, her arms, her shoulder. A good portion of her ribcage felt like ice.

Five couldn't breathe.

Like an echo, she heard the rocks crunch in front of her. The _thing_ stepped into her vision. It still had the same, empty grin. The tendrils of its hands were long, coiling past her sight. More lines of purple thread passed her, and Five felt more pricks of cold. She could just about see, in the corner of her eye, a thread fused to the flux on her shoulder. The flux around the thread seemed several shades darker than usual. Cold nipped at her.

The thing cocked its bulbous head to one side. Its grin grew impossibly wide. Five could see _something_ glint inside its mouth. Black teeth, or the back of its mouth had blades kept inside. The grin grew wider still.

Another thread coiled out of the thing’s hand, snaking through the air towards Five. It passed through the black spots in Five’s vision, passed above her range of sight, and she felt another blot of cold in her skull.

Five reached up--

* * *

 

Crooning whispers were around her.

Whispers of a man. Of a farm. Of hate and cruel thoughts and an empty, overpowering hunger. Whispers of a promise for revenge.

She tried to hold on to something. A familiar face drifted past, and she scrambled to keep it. A face often drawn back in a scowl or snappish order, but just as often scrunched in amusement. She tried to keep it. Her thoughts were numb in the cold, her grip slipped.

She reached out again. Hate, the thing with her hated, so she thought of a similar face. A face she hated, didn't she? But it was the same as the other, fading, even the voice was... something?

No, no, again. She tried again. Her face. Bleeding in flux, but she couldn't picture the shape of it. The purple ebbed and flowed from over her eyes to none at all to over one to over everything, and that wasn't right.

Something was pulling at her. The cold was pulling, tugging, and she _needed_ it to stop. She clung to whatever the cold wanted. She didn't know what it was, but if _it_ was trying to take it, it must be hers and hers alone.

The thing _pulled_ , and she lost her grip. It felt like a hole had opened. A faint breeze wafted her way, one full of heat and hate and _nothing_. She breathed in. Her throat was horribly dry and scratchy. There was a warmth around her like a blanket. The cold was gone. Her skin felt raw.

Footsteps. Like sacks rubbed against stone. Something was running.

She... blinked. That was the word, wasn't it? Stark grey was all around her, and if she tilted her head back, she could just about see something red. It was a nice colour. It was bright and glowing and ebbing and dancing. It felt... nice, while everything else was spinning.

Footsteps. Again, something was running below her, but these were different. Not like sacks, not dragging along the ground, but like soft little impacts of something against a surface.

She looked down, as much as it was a struggle to move. It made her want to puke as she tilted her head. She could recall an aching cold around her arms, her hands, her face, but it was gone now. Nothing but smooth, pale skin. Something was odd there. But it was fine. So long as that cold was gone she was fine, despite the gnawing grossness in her stomach.

There was something she needed to do. Something important, but no. The cold was gone, that was all that mattered. It must have just been a little thing.

A little thing. It felt like a tap at her shoulder, except internal. Something small. Something little. That was important.

Words drifted through her mind. A name. Her name, maybe? It had to be. The only other word in her head was “five,” and that was a number, not a name.

She took a breath of warm air, pulled herself upright, and watched as a brown panel in the floor sprang up. A face appeared there, looking confused as their eyes landed on her.

Her smile was strained. She could still feel the memory of cold itching at her, but she could ponder about that later. Right then and there, Nano needed to introduce herself. Maybe this guy had some answers for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Written in May 2016.


End file.
